A West Deer man was charged with attacking a doctor and nurse last month at Forbes Hospital in Monroeville.
Gabriel A. Brewer, 34, of West Deer’s Russellton neighborhood, was taken by ambulance to the hospital on March 14 after he was found unresponsive on a bench in an Allegheny County park, according to court records.
Brewer was taken to the emergency room for evaluation, where a doctor and nurse began assessing his vital signs.
During the exam, police said Brewer sat up in the bed and kicked the nurse in the face and left ear. He then turned to the attending doctor and punched her in the face, fracturing her right cheek bone, according a sworn affidavit.
Hospital security and Highmark police were called to the room, where they secured Brewer to his hospital bed using soft restraints.
While Brewer was being undressed and changed into hospital clothes, hospital police said a black, cast-iron “shiv,” a homemade improvised blade, fell out of one of the pockets.
He was charged with two counts each of aggravated assault, simple assault and harassment, and disorderly conduct. Court paperwork lists charges of resisting arrest, two counts of disorderly conduct and public drunkenness. He was unable to post bail and taken to the Allegheny County Jail in Pittsburgh.
An April 7 preliminary hearing is set in District Judge Tom Swan’s West Deer court.
Brewer was already due in court on April 9 for a preliminary hearing on charges of harassment, defiant trespass and disorderly conduct, stemming from a Feb. 16 incident in West Deer, according to court records.
In addition, he has an April 23 preliminary hearing on charges of resisting arrest, public drunkenness and two counts of disorderly conduct, filed by county police in connection with the March 14 incident.